Washington, D.C. — President Joe Biden is touting his Administration’s efforts to address trucking’s workforce challenges.

During an event hosted by the White House on Monday, President Biden credited his “Trucking Action Plan” — which was rolled out late last year — with improving the environment for those working within the industry.

“In this iconic American industry it is getting harder and harder to raise a family with dignity and pride that you deserve,” the President said. “It’s getting harder and harder to recruit new drivers, particularly women and people of color to an industry this nation and our economy desperately needs at full strength. The good news is that since I took office we’ve begun to turn things around.”

Claiming 2021 was “the best year in trucking employment since 1994,” Mr. Biden stated much more work needs to be done to improve conditions for truckers.

“There are now 35,000 more trucking jobs than there were before the pandemic, but we all know we need to move faster, getting more people working in this industry in jobs they can rely on and raise a family on,” he said.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg was also on hand and again put forward the much-debated assertion that the trucking industry is suffering from a massive shortage of drivers.

“Right now the industry estimates that we’re short 80,000 truck drivers and my Department estimates that 300,00 leave the career every year, so we must do more and do better to recruit more people into the job and to support them so they choose to stay in the job and that’s more than saying ‘thank you,'” Sec. Buttigieg commented. “It’s concrete and specific actions to help our trucking workforce thrive in this career to make sure trucking jobs are as high quality, as safe, and as well-paid as they ought to be.”

Further, Mr. Buttigieg called trucking a “national priority” and vowed the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) would soon be addressing issues such as truck parking, driver detention, driver misclassification and insufficient wages.

WATCH the entire event below.

Happening Now: President Biden delivers remarks on the progress made on the Trucking Action Plan to strengthen our nation’s supply chains. https://t.co/J7vdryu5ja

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 4, 2022

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